Italian aid worker released

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An Italian aid worker held hostage in Afghanistan for more than
three weeks was released last night, healthy and ready to go home,
officials said.

Clementina Cantoni, 32, had worked with widows and their
families for CARE International in Kabul for almost two years. She
planned to return home in June but she was kidnapped May 16 by
armed gunmen who dragged her from her vehicle. Yesterday, she
called her mother and said she was fine.

The Afghan government paid no money and did not negotiate with
the kidnappers, said Ali Ahmad Jalali, the interior minister.

"No ransom was paid, and no other concessions were given," he
said at a news conference last night.

Cantoni was shown on Kabul television walking down the stairs of
the Interior Ministry last night, wearing a blue scarf over her
hair.

"She's feeling well," Jalali said. "She's in good health."

The release of Cantoni capped three weeks of protests by
Afghans. Widows gathered with signs and slogans almost daily.
Nationally respected clerics issued a ruling against the
kidnapping.

When a video of Cantoni was shown on the Tolo TV station,
Afghans were outraged. Behind the scenes, officials negotiated with
tribal leaders, who helped talk to the kidnappers.

In Italy, similar appeals were made, by politicians, an Italian
movie star famous in Afghanistan and Cantoni's mother. On Sunday,
Pope Benedict XVI asked for Cantoni's freedom.

Her release was welcomed in Italy.

"She's free, she's free," shouted family friend Marco Formigoni,
who was with Cantoni's parents in Milan when they heard about the
release, Sky TG 24 television network reported.

The kidnapping of Cantoni was just one incident in a string of
violence that has hit the country since the spring thaw.

An Internet cafe in Kabul was bombed in early May. Afghans
working to set up alternative jobs for poppy growers have been
shot. De-miners have been bombed. US forces in southeastern Paktika
province have been bombed twice in the past week.

Many foreign workers have been living in virtual lockdown,
moving only between where they live and where they work.

Cantoni's kidnapping and rumours of other planned kidnappings
have only added to the fear.

Unlike Iraq, kidnappings are rare in Afghanistan. The last
kidnapping was in October, when three United Nations election
workers were held for almost a month before being released.

These kidnappers publicly made demands that many in the country
may agree with: They said they wanted to end the sale of alcohol.
They wanted to stop a racy radio show. They wanted jobs for former
poppy farmers.

But Cantoni's kidnapper was a criminal, not an Islamic purist,
officials said. He wanted two things: money and the release of his
mother from prison, according to two officials familiar with the
negotiations.

Fears had grown since the Italian's kidnapping that Rome would
pay a ransom for her release. At one point, negotiations appeared
to break down, as Italians accused Afghans of not doing enough, and
Afghans accused Italians of opening a separate negotiation channel
with the kidnappers. Many in Kabul thought that paying a ransom
could put all foreigners at risk, turning them into walking dollar
signs.

But a Western official and an Afghan official both insisted that
no money had exchanged hands. The kidnapper's mother also had not
been released, they said.